The marketing team from Radiology Associates held several paint parties to turn more than 200 chairs pink as part of the Empty Chair Project for Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Putting on the finishing touches — the bright pink ribbons — are (from left) marketing assistant Cindy Alaniz, marketing director Carmen Arias and marketing reps Robert Vasquez, Amy Curry and Isabel Pacils. Photo by Suzanne Freeman
Carman Arias came up with the Empty Chair Project after seeing the ghost bikes in Austin and because of the empty chair in her own life. Now in its second year, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month project will be distributing 200-plus pink chairs to businesses across Corpus Christi thanks to Radiology Associates, where Arias works as marketing director.
“One in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer,” Arias told Corpus Christi Business News. “It’s a statistic that’s hard to personalize, so we’ve got to be a little bit more powerful.”
The idea for how to drive that point home came from her frequent visits to Austin to see her children.
“I kept noticing these white bikes tethered to poles,” she said. “A white bike here and a white bike there.”
Known as ghost bikes, Arias learned they were placed at locations where cyclists had been killed by a motorist. The bikes are set up as memorials while also reminding motorists to share the road.
As she pondered images of the ghost bikes while at her dining room table brainstorming last year’s breast cancer awareness campaign, Arias began thinking of the impact of an empty chair. Specifically, she thought of the chair her father used to sit in when he’d come over for a meal. Arias’ father died 10 years ago, but the chair continues to hold his memory.
“Chairs are really personal,” she said. “They represent where Mom sat or where Dad sat. I thought, ‘We need to take this message to the streets.’”
She and her enthusiastic staff began searching for wooden chairs. Last year, they gathered more than a 150, either on the side of the road, at garage sales or even in dumpsters. They painted the chairs pink and began asking local businesses to host a chair along with displaying a poem explaining the Empty Chair Project. Before long, businesses were calling Radiology Associates asking for chairs.
“I think it made a significant impact,” Arias said. “So much so that people really stopped and noticed. They got it. Our mammogram numbers have really increased.”
And that, of course, is the point. Look for the empty pink chairs around town throughout the month and think of what you can do to help prevent more deaths from breast cancer. Perhaps have a mammogram? Remember to encourage someone you love to have one, too.
THE NEED TO SCREEN
The American Cancer Society recommends women have annual mammograms beginning at age 40. Random screening trials show mammograms reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer by 15-20 percent. Survival rates of women diagnosed with breast cancer are at 89 percent after five years of diagnosis, 83 percent after 10 years and 78 percent after 15 years, and this includes all stages of breast cancer combined.
In a disease in which early detection is key, Coastal Bend women have many opportunities to become informed and receive a mammogram screening. On Oct. 22, Radiology Associates will host its “First Mammo Disco Night” at its Southside Imaging Center, 5742 Spohn Drive, from 6-9 pm. At the event, women can get their first annual mammogram screening in a fun, laidback atmosphere with food, wine and ’70s music. For more information about this event or the Empty Chair Project, call Radiology Associates at (361) 561-3100.
